Frederick Bean Avery was born in Taylor, Texas, on
February 26, 1908, a descendant of both Judge Roy Bean
and Daniel
Boone. He started drawing comic strips while at North
Dallas High School, from which he graduated in 1927.
After spending a summer studying art at the Chicago Art
Institute, he moved to the Los Angeles, California, area,
where he initially worked in the harbor.

Avery's cartoon career began in 1929, when he was
hired by Walter Lantz Studios. In addition to working on
most of the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons, he
also freelanced his drawing and gag-writing services to
other studios.

In late 1935, Avery was hired by Leon Schlesinger, who
put him in charge of the Warner Brothers Merrie
Melodies and Looney Tunes cartoon series.
In addition to directing about 60 cartoons, Avery also
gave Bugs Bunny his personality and catch phrase
"What's up, Doc?", redesigned Porky Pig, and
created Daffy Duck.

A dispute with Schlesigner led Avery to leave Warner
Brothers in 1941. After directing the first three Speaking
of Animals cartoons made by Paramount Pictures, he
moved on to MGM. Over the next thirteen years Avery
directed virtually every MGM cartoon that did not feature
Tom and Jerry. He also created some of MGM's best-known
cartoon characters, including Droopy and Screwball
Squirrel.

Avery left MGM in 1954, just ahead of the studio's
decision to stop producing cartoons. He subsequently made
four cartoons for Walter Lantz, including one with a
redesign of Chilly Willy that became the one people are
familiar with today, before leaving studio work
altogether and going into television advertising. His
most notable work during this period were the Raid bug
spray commercials featuring the doomed bugs screaming
"RAID!" just before being sprayed and
"killed dead." He was also the creator of the
Frito's Corn Chips "mascot" Frito Bandito.

Avery spent the last two years of his life developing
gags and characters for Hanna-Barbera. He died of cancer
in Burbank, California, on August 26, 1980.